Then he lifted her on to his knee, with Beppo in her arms, and sat for a long while waiting.

The little head nodded, and Dolly sat up, unsteadily striving hard to keep awake; but at last she let Beppo drop to the floor, while she herself fell upon the old man's breast, and lay there without moving.

It chimed eleven o'clock at last, and Oliver knew it was of no use to watch any longer.
He managed to undress his little charge with gentle, though trembling hands, and then he laid her down on his bed, putting his only pillow against the wall to make a soft nest for the tender and sleepy child.

She roused herself for a minute, and stared about her, gazing steadily, with large, tearful eyes, into his face.

Then as he sat down on the bedstead beside her, to comfort her as well as he could, she lifted herself up, and knelt down, with her folded hands laid against his shoulder.
"Dolly vewy seepy," she lisped, "but must say her prayers always." "What are your prayers, my dear ?" he asked.
"On'y God bless gan-pa, and father, and mammy, and poor Beppo, and make me a good girl," murmured the drowsy voice, as Dolly closed her eyes again, and fell off into a deep sleep the next moment..